Benoit Pioulard, Cars & Trains, Mojave Bird

[ACOUSTIC COLLAGE] Recording under the moniker Benoit Pioulard for four full-length albums now, Tom Meluch has transitioned from a musician hiding behind the layers of his own sonic collages—more apt to create home recordings than to play live shows—into a songwriter who now tours regularly and whose voice is front and center. His brand-new album, Hymnal, showcases the full spectrum of his growth while remaining true to his soothing aesthetic of mixing field recordings, static texture and delicate acoustic chords with that of his own melodic voice. While Meluch is no longer a resident of the Rose City, having moved abroad and now resettled in Seattle (where his Orcas bandmate resides), his solo output remains very much entrenched in the Pacific Northwest. Remnants of nature scattered throughout allow his unconventional folk gems to sound comforting and familiar upon first listen.